Recently, Watsons’s 1 cent mask sales promotion campaign has aroused great controversy. First, offline stores refused consumers to pick up goods on the grounds of “shortage”, and then the anchor of the official live broadcasting room abused consumers as “mad dogs” and “beggars”, causing strong dissatisfaction among consumers.
After the matter fermented, Watson China urgently issued a statement of apology late on January 14, saying that it would fulfill the remaining orders by replenishment. The anchor was a member of a third-party organization. However, some netizens did not buy Watson’s apology. They said that the matter fermented for 4 days and came out to apologize after a hot search. They were not sincere enough.
As a former “retail king”, Watsons and consumers are behind the hot search of the 1 cent promotion mask, which reflects the fact that Watsons’s high gloss moment is no longer enough and its stamina is not enough. p align=”center” style=”text-align:left;”> 1 cent promotion mask does not allow delivery
the anchor scolds consumers like “mad dogs” and “beggars”
It is understood that in January 11th, Watsons launched online promotional activities, some of which can be purchased with only 0.01 yuan mask. After paying attention to the activity information, many consumers rushed to the platform to “collect wool”.
However, many consumers who collected wool were told that they were “out of stock” when they went offline to pick up the goods.
According to the black cat complaint platform, some consumers reported that after receiving the SMS notice, they were the first to pick up the goods in the store. After waiting for more than 10 minutes, they could finally pick up the goods. The clerk suddenly received a call not to pick up the goods and asked them to wait for the notice. Subsequently, the consumer received a text message informing him that the goods were out of stock and could not be picked up. “Obviously there are goods, I also saw the clerk order”. The consumer suspected that the store refused to pick up the goods on the premise that there are goods, believing that Watson’s official activities were “unable to play” and wasted his time and money.
Other consumers shared their experience on social media that they went to pick up the goods as soon as the mall opened, but the store manager’s attitude was very poor, saying there were no goods, but the goods were on the shelf. When she called the industrial and commercial complaint, the store manager asked the clerk to take the goods in.
What is more dissatisfied with consumers is that the mask that claims to be out of stock is still being sold in live broadcast. Therefore, some consumers responded to this matter on Watson’s official live broadcasting platform and hoped to be solved, which triggered a conflict between the anchor and consumers.
Some consumers reflected that they asked the mask when they had the goods to be issued, and then they were dragged black, kicking out the live room, what they could not do again.
According to the online video clip of more than 20 seconds, a female anchor accused consumers of trying to pick up things for a penny and bite like a mad dog, and said, “in my live studio, I can kick if I want, I don\’t welcome you, you don\’t use it. You\’ll be happy if I kick.”
In addition, there was a voice from the staff behind the scenes, saying, “you don\’t recognize the bargain when you collect it. If you don\’t, you still come here to bite.”
It is worth noting that in addition to using the uncivilized word “mad dog”, consumers also said that the Watsons anchors had scolded the consumers who participated in the mask promotional activities in January 13th’s live broadcast as beggars.
Red Star capital Bureau has noticed that in the complaint of black cats, there are more than 7000 complaints about Watsons. Among them, has 1616 because of the 1 cent promotion mask.
Watsons apologized all night: mask replenishment
the anchor is a third-party organization personnel
In view of the controversy arising from the promotion of 1 cent money, Watsons customer service staff responded in January 14th. Because of the system abnormality, the consumers who ordered the “1 cent money promotion mask” in the US group could only cancel the order. “For this abnormal situation, we will also ask relevant departments to investigate.”
On January 14, consumers reported that they received a 50 yuan coupon compensation from meituan, but at the same time, meituan customer service also responded that the activity price was set by the merchant itself and had nothing to do with meituan system. The compensation was not Watson’s compensation scheme, but just to make up for consumers’ experience on meituan platform.
At 23:59 p.m. on January 14, Watson issued an apology statement on his official microblog. Watson said that due to system reasons, this activity generated a large number of abnormal orders far exceeding the inventory in a short time. When the inventory can be supported, Watson has cashed some orders. Later, due to insufficient inventory, Watson suspended cashing, Watson decided to take the way of replenishment to fulfill the remaining orders.
In response to the inappropriate remarks made by the anchor in the live broadcast room, Watson said that the anchor is a member of a third-party organization. Watson will deeply reflect and strengthen the training and supervision of all personnel of the company and third-party partners.
As soon as the apology statement came out, relevant topics quickly rushed to the first place of hot search.
However, some netizens did not buy Watson’s apology, saying that it had been fermenting for four days and came out to apologize after a hot search. The implication was that Watson was not sincere enough. Some netizens believe that the female anchor who made improper remarks should also apologize.
For this matter, China new network commented that whether it was “wool” or brush traffic, for the “1 cents promotion mask” can not pick up the incident, Watsons as a brand side, should timely give consumers a positive response and solutions. Its anchor ridiculed consumers as “mad dogs”, seemed to regard the live broadcasting room as their own territory and wantonly kicked consumers out of the live broadcasting room.
We can\’t help asking, who is the “God” in this business to consumer promotion? Water can carry a boat and overturn it. Consumers are the core of all business activities of enterprises. Only based on honesty can the brand be long-term. Watsons should put down his arrogant posture and make no mistake about his identity.
According to media reports, Li Xin\’an of Hunan Wanhe united law firm said that in this incident, consumers paid 0.01 yuan to buy goods through the platform link. There was no fault for the non malicious “wool collection”. The merchant shall deliver goods to consumers as agreed, and shall not refuse to deliver goods on the grounds of operation error, insufficient inventory and other reasons, or suggest consumers to refund on the grounds of no goods.
failed to be listed, lack of stamina
the former “retail king” can\’t sell goods
Without the 1 cent mask event, perhaps many people can’t recall a shop like Watsons.
Watson originated in a Western pharmacy in 1828 and was bought by Li Ka Shing in 1981. Since then, the expansion road of “buy buy” has been opened. After acquiring chain enterprises in the Netherlands, France, Russia and other places, Watson has gradually become an important part of Li Ka Shing’s retail layout.
Watson opened its first store in Beijing in 1989, its 100th store in 2005 and its 1000th store six years later. Now Watson has spread over nearly 500 cities in the mainland, with more than 4000 stores.
As China’s largest cosmetics and daily chemical chain brand, Watson has made great progress all the way and is regarded as a representative of fashion by countless young people.
At the end of 2013, Watson was exposed to plan to be listed independently, with a valuation of HK $192 billion to HK $312 billion.
That was Watson’s highlight moment, but then came the fall.
in March 2014, Li Ka Shing suddenly sold 24.95% of Watson’s equity to Temasek, the national sovereign fund of Singapore, for only HK $44 billion, significantly lower than the market forecast. the real reason why Li Ka Shing “sold” Watson at a low price is unknown, but his move undoubtedly ruined Watson’s future in the capital market, and the listing plan finally failed.
With the advent of the e-commerce era, Watson’s performance has gradually shown a decline.
According to the financial report, Watson’s performance growth in the Chinese market has not been satisfactory since 2016. In this year, Watson’s operating income in China was HK $20.914 billion, with a decline in performance for the first time. EBITDA, which is used to measure the ability of an enterprise to generate cash flow from its main business, also decreased by 4.21%.
From 2017 to 2019, Watson China’s revenue was HK $21.783 billion, HK $23.855 billion and HK $24.591 billion respectively; Excluding the impact of exchange rate, the growth rates were 5%, 7% and 7% respectively, all of which were low digit growth. In 2020, Watson suffered a critical blow during the epidemic. According to the financial report, its revenue in China slipped 19% to HK $19.984 billion.
The weak performance is due to Watson’s inability to sell. In 2015, Watson’s same store sales decreased by 5.1% year-on-year, with negative growth for four consecutive years. In 2019, Watson’s same store sales rebounded slightly, with a year-on-year increase of 2%, but then it was hit hard by the epidemic. With the stable epidemic situation, Watson’s same store sales increased by 17.8% year-on-year in the first half of 2021.
in the first half of 2021, Watson’s performance recovered, and its sales in the Chinese market increased by 32% year-on-year, but it still did not return to the level before the epidemic.
While the same store sales fell, Watson also opened a large number of new stores. According to the financial report, from 2016 to 2019, the number of Watson’s stores in China increased from 2929 to 3947, almost one store a day. As of December 31, 2020, Watsons had 4115 stores in the Chinese market and 3947 stores in the same period in 2019, with a year-on-year increase of 4%.
When Watson’s performance stagnated, the e-commerce era of the beauty industry has come. Watsons, busy opening offline stores, missed the bonus period.
Watson has also tried to draw back the attention of young people through online brand marketing.
On February 28, 2021, Watson officially announced the signing of CAI Xukun as the brand spokesman. Prior to this, Watson also launched a joint venture with line friends, and created Qu Chenxi, a virtual brand spokesman, with AI technology to build theme stores. In addition, Watson also launched the advertising song “love you at 105 ° C”. However, the song is popular all over the network, but many people don\’t know that this is the advertising song of Watson distilled water marketing.
Compared with Watson’s over enthusiastic shopping guide, young people seem to prefer Li Jiaqi in the live studio.
